WPP Staff interview with Doron Joles of XminY Fund
XminY is an organization that supports social movements, action groups and changemakers fighting for a fair, democratic, sustainable and accepting world. We are a unique worldwide action fund that has been supporting social movements for almost 50 years. We believe that problems can best be approached from the bottom up. Local activists and grassroots organizations know best what the most effective way to realize their goals is and how to give a voice to those who are unheard. After all, every great social transformation starts with brave individuals who take the first steps along the road to change. These are ordinary people who stand up in their communities, encourage others, and work together with them in the struggle for a fair, just, sustainable and accepting world.
XminY believes in the power of people to shape their world to support these changemakers in their struggles. We support demonstrations, occupations, direct action and other creative ways to change the world. XminY primarily supports groups that are new, small or controversial. Often, they do not receive support from bigger donors or governments as they do not meet donor requirements, or their questioning of established interests makes them contentious in their own regions. The projects XminY supports stand out because of their critique of the current economic and governance systems, and their dedication to putting people and planet before profit. The proposals that we receive are discussed by regional specialists. They decide which projects are eligible for funding. We support more than 100 projects yearly, with funds ranging from 250 to 3000 euros.
I got to know XminY when I was active within Groenfront!, the Dutch Earth First! Movement. Many of our actions were funded by this nice organization with the strange name. Later when I finished my anthropology studies I started as a volunteer in the Latin American group of XminY. During my studies, I specialized in the impact of the huge Peruvian open pit gold mine Yanacocha on farming communities next to the mine. This gave me a lot of insight into the dynamics of funding applications we discussed.
After volunteering for two years, I joined XminY’s staff. My role in the organization is to coordinate the Latin American, Asian and Eastern regions. I prepare the monthly meetings of the regional specialists who all are volunteers at our organization.
XminY is horizontally organized. This means that we are all responsible for the organizational management, budgets, and reports to our board etc. We divide these tasks among our small staff of part-timers.
Next year we celebrate our 50th anniversary. Quite a unique achievement for a non-compromising organization, which even has some anarchist principles. Originally XminY was founded on the idea that a certain amount of our wealth, taxes or GDP should go to development work, but in reality this has never been the case. The difference between what the Netherlands does spend - X - and should spend – Y - has to be compensated by the people. That is how we started and what our name stands for: X minus Y.
In the seventies, among others XminY supported anti-apartheid groups and had a strong link with revolutionary movements in central America, which at the time had broad societal support in the Netherlands. Within the Netherlands and Europe we always maintained a strong connection with the squatting movement, environmental groups, and the anti-nuclear movement.
These days, we continue to support social movements for change around the world, but only those who engage in nonviolent resistance. New topics addressed from the ‘80s until present included the anti-capitalist movement, gender justice, sexual minority rights, and migrants and undocumented people in Europe and the Netherlands. Last year for example, we supported quite a number of demonstrations in Poland for women’s rights and against a law that would make abortion illegal in almost all cases.
We are almost completely funded by private donations. A very small part of our funds comes from other foundations that co-finance single projects. This gives us a unique position of independence. We do not have to compromise in the topics we support or the interests we counter. XminY has a group of around three thousand sympathizers who donate anywhere from 3 euros a month to much more on a yearly basis. Many of our donors have been supporting us since the seventies, which is incredible! At the same time we are constantly searching for new people who want to support our work.
I think it is very important to express international solidarity and to actually (financially) support activists around the world. We notice an increase of repression and outright violence against activists. Also, there a more subtle tendencies of repression. For example, where new media can be a tool for people to express themselves and share experiences, it has also become an effective place to disparage and criticize activists. It can endanger their work or defuse their message, which leads to a new level of shrinking space for opposition.
I think our work is becoming increasingly important. I worry when I look at the world, and how the Dutch government positions itself in the world. One current example is that most of our new government’s development budget will be aimed at preventing immigration. These are hard times, since many NGOs in the Netherlands are dependent on government funding. Groups with an inclusive ideology lose funding and possibilities at a fast pace.
I also notice that because of our independence we are able to maintain a more straightforward stance of solidarity towards the groups that we fund. In contrast to many others, we do not need to collaborate in a bigger partnership of NGOs that together receive funds on a specific program with restrictions, set out by the government, or private foundations.
Maybe the most important difference is our low threshold and accessibility. We have a very easy application procedure and even less demanding reporting requirements. This is what makes us unique and accessible for groups with a very low level of organization or people who have never applied for any kind of funding before. Think of local communities that organize themselves against the threat of mega industrial projects; or small and loosely organized activist groups in Europe in support of refugees. To be able to uphold this low threshold and still be able to judge organizations fairly on their capacity and trustworthiness, it is crucial to maintain a wide network. For this, we are so thankful to our 40 volunteer regional specialists, many of whom are activists themselves.
To maintain a steady income from private donations takes quite a lot of effort for a small organization. We maintain a web page, a Facebook page, and on a yearly basis produce about seven printed publications, like newsletters or our annual report. It’s very important to us to show our sympathizers how crucial their support is for those fighting for a better world. At the same time, it is always a challenge to keep our structural costs as low as possible to be able to give the majority of our funds to the groups we support.
Perhaps surprisingly, the contrary is also a challenge. It is not always easy to find groups to support. We depend on our network and word of mouth for groups to learn about our existence and the possibility to receive funding.
We constantly encounter 'shrinking space' or outright repression of our partners. There are many examples. Activists are imprisoned on made-up charges, threatened, and sometimes even murdered. The foreign agent laws in Russia and other places. Colombia, which always needs some kind of paper explaining why the organization receives foreign funds; and for some reason it is still impossible to transfer funds directly from the Netherlands to Cuba. We also experience that organizations are closed down, lose their legal identities and therefore their organizational bank accounts. Also we notice that activists sometimes don’t communicate freely by email. And with good reason, it is not unthinkable that some of our communication is intercepted.
For all of this we have created workarounds. We can communicate using PGP encryption, or transfer funds to individuals or even by Western Union. In a world that often prefers silence to resistance you have to be creative. And it is great to have the opportunity to do so.
I advise other donors to be more trusting of small organizations. Often it’s ordinary people who suffer most from exploitative systems. They know very well what they need or what they do not want. We do need to support them to hear their voices. If we can only hear the voices of those that are capable of writing lengthy reports and complex applications we will never change the system.
If you are an activist or group working for a better world, take a look at www.xminy.nl/english. Perhaps XminY can support you!
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